Simulation of the shape deflection for the spherical shell of the space calibration-adjustment spacecraft

Abstract

Abstract The spherical shell made with high accuracy is one of the possible geometric shapes for passive orbital signal repeaters and calibration-adjustment spacecrafts used to determine the energy potential of the radar channel of the ground-based complex needed to control the space object motion. Under the solar radiation, an uneven temperature distribution over the surface of such a shell causing a deviation of its shape from the spherical one occurs. To determine these deviations, the steady-state temperature distribution for the shell with a fixed orientation relative to the Sun obtained by solving the Fredholm integral equation of the second kind is used. A quantitative analysis of the possible alignment of a quasi-stationary distribution of the shell temperature in case of the shell rotation with a constant angular velocity around the axis perpendicular to the direction to the Sun is carried out.